Blueprints
by NixKat
Summary: On a gut feeling the Fearless Few decide to investigate that nifty force field project that the Thanagarians are working on. Richie does not like what he sees. (Part of The Grid/Data universe)


"If that's a force field generator then my name is Fl'ddd'flrn. And it's not." Richie grumbled as he looked over the blueprints that Daisy and Nina snapped photos of. Blueprints that the girls were only able to get by going stealth mode and bypassing several groups of increasingly armed guards. Blueprints that, and Richie was still nauseous at the thought of it, almost got those girls killed if it weren't for Nina's time powers. He grabbed his notebook from his work desk and BacPac gave him a pen before he asked.

"You sure Rich? Thanagarians are aliens, they might have come up with a different design plan for these things?" His best friend asked while looking over his shoulder. Virgil was frowning, he'd helped with the wiring for the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude's defensive shields and repaired Gear's personal energy shield generator when the other boy had thrown his back out. There was something odd going on with the set up depicted by the blueprints but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Richie tapped the butt of his pen at the inner ring of the generator on the screen. "Aside from the fact that a force field generator only needs to be at most the size of your average roadside diner, otherwise you're using a really shitty generator that'll fail a siege with the first—"

"Focus brainboy." Virgil sighed as he pulled up a seat at the computer.

"Riiiiiight, ok, yeah that machine is basically a high tech freeway bypass if I'm translating these instructions right. And I'm pretty sure that I am since it looks just like a wormhole generator. A really outdated one given that in order to work it'd have too…oh fuck me slowly with a chainsaw soaked in Tabasco sauce." In a flash, Richie was filling his notebook with some kind of alien script and muttering to himself in an equally alien language.

Concerned Virgil put a hand on his friend's shoulder to get his attention. "Dude, I got the beats and not the lyrics, why exactly are we in a pile of shit and what do we do about it?"

Richie ripped out the pages in his notebook that he had filled in that short period of time and groaned. He stared at the other teen superhero in the room, Nina and Daisy were still recovering from the mission and Frieda and Shenice were still out on patrol and nodded to himself before speaking. "There is a 98.99% chance that the Thanagarians are planning to blow up the Earth." He held a hand up to indicate that he was not finished speaking. "So I need to talk to Starfire about Gordanians and Thanagarians and we all need to get ready for the inevitable Thanagarian takeover when the shit hits the fan."

At the words 'blow up the Earth' Virgil had hopped out of his seat. His hands were attempting to gesture words before they left his mouth. "Bro, the planet is gonna explode is info that we need to give to some big league superheroes. The Justice League needs to hear this!"

Richie shook his head, "Right six out of seven members of the Justice League versus an entire superpowered army and probably Hawknose, who I'll remind you probably knows all of their secrets by now."

"Or we could leak the info to the major news outlets!" Virgil suggested in frustration. It bothered him that his friend was already counting out options before they even tried. "We could go to the government!"

Richie raised a dark eyebrow at him. "The government, listening to a bunch of teenagers? Especially listening to teens about theoretical physics and alien technology over the actual adult aliens vouching for shit? The best that will do is get us noticed by the soon to be hostile aliens and probably disappeared somewhere."

Virgil sighed and slumped back into the discolored secondhand chair that he was in earlier. He understood Richie's reasoning and hated that it made sense. "So, Mr. Psychic, I don't suppose you have a plan to stop the Earth from going boom yet do you?"

Richie shot the other boy a nervous grin. "I'm working on one but so far all I've got is run, hide, and wreak their shit before it goes online."

Virgil laughed just as nervously and rolled his chair over to the other workbench to get the T-phone that Robin gave Shenice before that Brotherhood of Evil mess went down. Not just to get Star's confirmation, no, this was big leagues stuff. This was the sorta stuff that needed superhero team-ups.


End file.
